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Download Booklet CHAN 3103 Cover.qxd 20/9/06 10:02 am Page 1 CHAN 3103(2) CHANDOS O PERA IN ENGLISH PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3103 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:22 am Page 2 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Lebrecht Collection Lebrecht Idomeneo, King of Crete Dramma per musica in three acts Libretto by Giovanni Battista Varesco after Antoine Danchet’s Idomenée English translation by David Parry Idomeneo, King of Crete.....................................................................................Bruce Ford tenor Idamante, his son.........................................................................Diana Montague mezzo-soprano Ilia, Trojan princess, daughter of King Priam..............................................Rebecca Evans soprano Electra, princess, daughter of Agamemnon...............................................Susan Patterson soprano Arbace, the King’s confidant .........................................................................Ryland Davies tenor High Priest of Neptune ................................................................................Nicolai Gedda tenor Voice of Neptune ................................................................................................Clive Bayley bass Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North Philip Sunderland assistant conductor/chorus master David Parry Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 3 CHAN 3103 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:22 am Page 4 The version of Idomeneo to be found on this Mozart, we also omitted Arbace’s first aria, recording is exactly that which Tim Albery feeling that it was probably retained for and I prepared for the production at Opera diplomatic rather than purely artistic reasons: North in 2002. We aimed for a theatrically without it the role of Arbace becomes, as it tight version while trying to remain close to should, truly secondary. Mozart’s apparent intentions. It is absolutely We retained, however, Electra’s final aria, clear that there is no authenticity in producing which Mozart cut. Mozart’s observation was a complete version of the opera: Mozart made that it was dramatically crass for the rest of the severe cuts for the first production. It could be cast to leave the stage before the aria only to re- argued that some of these were necessitated by appear as soon as it is over for the final scene. Munich/Lebrecht© INTERFOTO, Music the poor quality of some of the singers, in There is truth in this; but Tim Albery solved particular the Idamante, who, from Mozart’s the problem brilliantly by keeping the other description, appears to have been wooden and characters on stage to watch Electra’s descent boring. It is clear, however, that most of the into madness in horrified silence, a deeply cuts were made to produce a compelling and disturbing moment which helped us, the convincing dramatic whole. audience, to understand and empathise with We accordingly cut most of the arias that her plight. In addition, it is one of the most Mozart did, including Idamante’s aria in Act thrilling arias that Mozart wrote. And, in its II, Arbace’s aria in Act III and Idomeneo’s final closing passage, technically very demanding. aria. In the case of the latter two we retained Perhaps it was beyond the first Electra? the accompanied recitatives, as Mozart seems We also departed from Mozart’s decisions to have done. This lends an almost Wagnerian by omitting the ballet after the action is over. quality to passages in the opera, where Surely there can be few artistic grounds on narration and conversation take precedence which to quibble with in such a decision. over formalised arias. The preponderance of What you will hear is a rendition of intensely dramatic and beautifully inflected Idomeneo as a compelling music-drama, not as recitative is indeed a startling feature of the an over-long museum piece. work, a feature which is lost if too much of Costume design for Idomeneo by the more formalised music is restored. Unlike © 2004 David Parry Lorenzo Quaglio 4 5 CHAN 3103 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:22 am Page 6 COMPACT DISC ONE Time Page Time Page 1 Overture 4:33 [p. 74] 14 ‘This lonely shore’ 4:37 [p. 78] Idamante, Idomeneo Act I 15 ‘The father I love dearly’ 2:49 [p. 79] 2 ‘When will the gods release me’ 3:59 [p. 74] Idamante 3 ‘Father, my brothers, forgive me!’ 3:31 [p. 74] Ilia Intermezzo 4 ‘Ah! He is coming’ 2:34 [p. 74] 16 March – Ilia, Idamante ‘May Neptune be honoured’ 4:12 [p. 79] 5 ‘I am guiltless and yet you blame me’ 5:42 [p. 75] Chorus Idamante 6 ‘Here are the few wretched Trojan victims’ 0:45 [p. 75] Act II Ilia, Idamante 17 ‘We are alone; listen, Arbace’ 3:58 [p. 80] 7 ‘The war is over’ 2:23 [p. 76] Idomeneo, Arbace, Ilia Chorus 18 ‘My father was taken’ 5:31 [p. 81] 8 ‘Prince, my lord, you insult the Greek nation’ 2:34 [p. 76] Ilia Electra, Idamante, Arbace, Ilia 19 ‘How should I interpret words so ambiguous and 9 ‘The King dies… and I am friendless!’ 1:51 [p. 77] disturbing?’ 2:10 [p. 81] 10 ‘I feel you writhe inside me’ 3:18 [p. 77] 20 ‘Saved from storms, the storm within me rages’ 6:02 [p. 82] Electra Idomeneo 11 ‘Relent! Heaven, relent!’ 1:05 [p. 77] 21 ‘What pleasure could be deeper than mine is?’ 1:29 [p. 82] Chorus 22 ‘Dearest creature, that I know you love another cannot 12 Pantomime hurt me’ 6:09 [p. 82] ‘We have been saved at last’ 3:18 [p. 77] Electra 13 ‘The ghost of my victim’ 3:58 [p. 78] TT 76:46 Idomeneo 6 7 CHAN 3103 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:22 am Page 8 COMPACT DISC TWO Time Page Time Page 1 ‘You shores of Crete’ 0:51 [p. 82] 14 ‘Most unfortunate land!’ 3:22 [p. 88] Electra Arbace 2 ‘Calmly the sea is calling’ 4:02 [p. 82] 15 ‘Raise your eyes for a moment, your highness’ 4:31 [p. 88] Chorus, Electra High Priest, Idomeneo 3 ‘You must set sail, Prince’ 0:31 [p. 83] 16 ‘Oh, oh vow past redemption’ 4:47 [p. 88] Idomeneo, Idamante Chorus, High Priest 4 ‘If I must leave, I beg you’ 3:43 [p. 83] 17 March 1:27 [p. 89] Idamante, Electra, Idomeneo 18 ‘Oh mighty ocean god, we beg you hear us’ 3:07 [p. 89] 5 ‘The storm winds are howling’ 1:31 [p. 84] Idomeneo, Chorus Chorus 19 ‘Highness, our hero, the prince Idamante’ 1:13 [p. 89] 6 ‘I am the one, merciless Neptune, the culprit’ 1:50 [p. 84] Arbace, Idomeneo Idomeneo 20 ‘Father, my dearest father…’ 5:47 [p. 89] 7 ‘Disaster! Run faster to flee such a horror!’ 1:28 [p. 84] Idamante, Idomeneo, Ilia, High Priest Chorus 21 ‘Your love has triumphed: Idomeneo shall rule no more’ 2:32 [p. 90] Voice of Neptune Act III 22 ‘The gods show mercy!’ 1:11 [p. 91] 8 ‘Here, alone but not lonely’ 0:56 [p. 84] Idomeneo, Idamante, Ilia, Arbace, Electra 9 ‘Heav’nly breezes, soft and gentle’ 5:44 [p. 84] 23 ‘The woes of my brother invade and destroy me’ 3:08 [p. 91] Ilia Electra 10 ‘Noble princess, if I dare to seek you out again’ 3:25 [p. 85] 24 ‘Cretans: this shall be the last decree Idomeneo will 11 ‘At the moment such words were uttered’ 2:53 [p. 86] pronounce’ 5:41 [p. 91] Idamante, Ilia Idomeneo 12 ‘(What do I see here?)’ 2:00 [p. 86] 25 ‘Bless their love, bless their devotion’ 1:23 [p. 91] Idomeneo, Ilia, Idamante, Electra Chorus 13 ‘Alone the earth I wander’ 5:28 [p. 87] TT 72:49 Idamante, Ilia, Idomeneo, Electra 8 9 CHAN 3103 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:22 am Page 10 woven music into his life so tightly as this one.’ as here, omitted. For a private performance in Mozart: Idomeneo There Mozart made many musical friends who Vienna in 1786, Mozart made appreciable were to take part in Idomeneo. He began revisions, mostly shortening the score. Idomeneus, in Greek legend, son of Deucalion, given in Munich on 29 January 1781. work on the opera before leaving Salzburg on At this early stage in his career – he was grandson of Minos and Pasiphaë, and King of Mozart’s librettist, the Salzburg pastor, 5 November. His writing of the score is twenty-five at the time – he was still learning Crete. He courted Helen and took part in the Giovanni Battista Varesco, simplified documented in letters home to his father, who his craft. He was most anxious to ensure the Trojan War. According to Homer’s Odyssey, he Danchet’s plot and changed the ending from sometimes acted as an intermediary between opera worked in theatrical terms so that, in the returned home safely with all his countrymen tragic to happy. Five acts were reduced to three the composer and his librettist. course of its preparation for the stage, he made who survived the war. In later tradition, having to conform to the ‘reformed’ operas of Gluck. Mozart reported home on the singers’ a number of cuts. Their restoration in recent been overtaken by a violent storm, he vowed to Indeed the influence of that composer’s Alceste reactions – predominantly favourable – and on times, when authenticity has been much to the sacrifice to Poseidon [Neptune] the first living can be felt in the more high-flown, hieratic the local Elector’s approval of the music that fore, has been the subject of much discussion thing that met him when he reached home. This passages of Idomeneo while the arias owed he heard in rehearsal. The premiere, attended and some controversy. Mozart, oddly, kept proved to be his son, whom he slew in much to the style of Italian lyricism. by Leopold Mozart, was well received. It had Arbace’s arias and the concluding ballet at accordance with his vow; whereupon a plague Mozart received the commission from the evocative designs by Lorenzo Quaglio, then a Munich, but excluded Electra’s final and broke out and Idomeneus was driven out… Munich Intendant [Director], Count Seeau, noted figure in his field.
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